FIC: To Cross the River Styx (4e/?)

["Chazzman " <charles.parise@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well I finally got through 'Hush'. Please tell me what you think.

TITLE: To Cross the River Styx (4e/?)
AUTHOR: Chazzman
E-MAIL: charles.parise@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They 
all belong to Joss and the WB network. Please don't sue. 
SPOILERS: Open season on Season 4. 
SUMMERY: I'm re-inventing season 4.
RATED: PG
DISTRIBUTION: Just ask me, please...
FEEDBACK: Is very welcome.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you again to all the wonderful people who have 
sent me feedback saying they are interested in seeing more. 


To Cross the River Styx
Chap 4e


It was a markedly different Sunnydale that Buffy and Angel walked 
through that night. Gone were the aimless crowds of people wandering 
about and getting into fights. Now there were only empty streets to 
match the eerie silence that had fallen over the town. The murders 
had reminded people that while they may have lost their voice's, they 
could still lose more. So they hid in their houses, behind locked 
doors, huddling in groups for comfort and safety. Parents kept their 
children in their beds with them that night.

Buffy strode through the empty streets of Sunnydale as if she owned 
them. Angel found himself having to lengthen his own stride in order 
to keep pace. He had never seen Buffy concentrate so intently upon a 
hunt. 

The last few weeks had change her. In the same way that his own 
reversion to Angelus had stripped her of her innocence, Willow's 
disappearance had given Buffy a new grim determination in her job as 
a Slayer. He knew she was afraid that Willow was dead, and 
truthfully so was he. And he worried about how she would react if it 
were true. Doyle's death had made that possibility all the more 
tangible and alarming.

Floating above the two warriors, Willow was attempting to direct 
Buffy towards the clock tower, thus far without much success. 
Buffy's intense concentration on patrolling seemed to be blocking her 
efforts. At least she hoped that was it. This inability to 
communicate was really starting to get her angry.

Although it was only 11:30pm, the presence of a car on the street was 
strange enough for Buffy and Angel to stop and watch it slowly pass 
by. The fact that it was a large, black Humvee with tinted windows 
raised immediate suspicions in the Slayer. Tint implied a possible 
vampire, whereas the make of the vehicle gave Buffy the impression of 
military. Spike's story of the hidden lab facility had a secret 
government feel to it, and while she still did not trust Spike, last 
year's confrontation with the Mayor had given Buffy a 'once bitten, 
twice shy' attitude towards anything connected to the government. 

Inside the Humvee, Jude Law stared back at the couple standing alone 
on the sidewalk watching as he passed. While he knew that she could 
not see him, there was something about the expression on the girl's 
face as she turned her head to track the car. The man with her was 
watching the car go by as well; however, it was the girl who was 
triggering that little voice that he always listened to. 

Jude Law was very good at identifying unusual or surprising 
problems. Unusual or the surprising problems never bothered him. It 
was one of the reasons why he was so good at dealing with them. 
That, plus his ability to eliminate the problem which had not 
bothered him. 

So now as he rode past the girl he signaled for the driver to turn at 
the next corner and then had him stop. Turning around to watch out 
the back window he waited. Sure enough, a minute later, the girl 
appeared around the corner and stopped to watch the car. Turning 
around he was surprised when the driver handed him a note. 'Her name 
is Buffy Summers. I don't know the guy.' 

Buffy Summers. He recognized the name. Willow Rosenberg's roommate 
and best friend. Also, the leader of the hunt for the missing Miss 
Rosenberg. He knew she was persistent in her pushing the search, but 
for her to be out tonight... something was up.

He gestured for the driver to proceed and they started up again. 
After another block they turned down another street. When they were 
far enough out of sight, Jude indicated for the driver to stop and he 
got out. He gave the driver the command to return to the base while 
he slipped away into the dark. 

Sighing Graham started off in the car. Riley would have been pissed 
at him for pointing out Buffy but after today Graham knew who was in 
charge at the Initiative and it wasn't Riley and it certainly wasn't 
Dr. Walsh. Something had happened to Alpha team the night of Hostile 
17's escape and everyone knew it had something to do with that girl 
Rosenberg. Her disappearance and the subsequent shutdown of 
activities had started a lot of rumors amongst the troops, but Riley, 
Forrest, Sanchez and Metz were hardly speaking with anyone. 
Personally, he was leaning towards the rumor that the chip in Hostile 
17 had failed; Alpha team had interrupted him while he was killing 
the girl; Riley had recognized her and taken her to initiative HQ to 
get her medical attention but it had been too late. Jude Law was 
here because the chip had failed and Alpha team had compromised their 
cover and now everyone thought there was some group of wackos who 
were kidnapping people. 

The irony that it was Riley's almost girlfriend who was now leading 
the crusade against the Initiative only proved to Graham how fallible 
Riley could be. 

*****

Buffy and Angel walked up to look down the street where the Humvee 
had turned and saw a now empty street. Buffy was about to proceed 
down the street when Angel grabbed her shoulder. She looked at him 
and he indicated for her to listen. At first she heard nothing but 
then she caught a faints hint of the sound of something jingling back 
down from where she had just come. In a flash she was running down 
the street, sticking to the shadows, dodging behind trees and leaping 
hedges and fences. Angel was hard pressed to keep up and, further 
back, Jude Law watched in surprise as the girl rapidly flew down the 
street in a stealthy hunting pattern.

Reaching Main Street, Buffy paused to listen, turning her head this 
way and that. Angel had just reached her when she darted off down 
the street again. She caught sight of something white disappearing 
around a corner and she streaked down the alley that connected to Elm 
Street. 

Peering out from the alley, Buffy spotted a shambling figure wearing 
a straightjacket as it scuttled down the street. She was about to 
follow it when she suddenly caught sight of the clock tower and 
something within her gave a shout. All day she had been receiving 
vague impressions relating to a clock face, and she had thought it 
was some kind of Slayer instinct telling her that time was running 
out. Now, she realized that it was actually an image of this clock 
tower that she had been seeing.

Angel finally caught up, saw the figure in the straight jacket and 
looked at Buffy with an arched eyebrow, as if to ask why she was just 
standing there. Buffy pointed at the clock tower just as a shadow of 
two people passed by the window. Somebody was inside. Buffy and 
Angel looked at each other and nodded in agreement before walking out 
of the ally and moving purposefully towards the clock tower as they 
readied their weapons for battle.

Jude Law was out of breath by the time he reached the alley. Holding 
his gun at the ready he had proceeded cautiously down the alley, 
alert for any signs of a trap. The couple was nowhere in sight, and 
he wondered if he had lost them. Reaching the end of the alley he 
spotted them outside the clock tower. To Jude's surprise, it was the 
girl who walked forward first and kicked open the door. He was even 
more intrigued when she raised her hands and fired what looked like a 
crossbow before leaping forward into the building, closely followed 
by the man. He moved forward to watch and was startled when a figure 
in a straightjacket crashed headfirst through the boarded up lower 
window. 

Peering through the broken window, Jude could see the couple was 
engaged in an all out brawl against four more figures wearing 
unfastened straightjackets while three lay on the floor, dead or 
unconscious he didn't know. Jude was more than a little amazed when 
Buffy kicked one figure and he flew across the room, snapping a 
support beam as he crashed into it. Although she showed an impressive 
fighting ability, she should not be able to do that. The girl could 
not have weighed that much and she certainly didn't look to be that 
muscular. Next he caught sight of the man who had accompanied Buffy 
and was astounded to see the now familiar vampiric ridges on his face 
that Jude had seen on a number of the hostiles in the Initiative's 
containment facilities.

Jude would have been content to watch the remainder of the fight 
through the window, however he was interrupted when someone tackled 
him from behind.

Rolling across the grass he lashed out with his feet and was rewarded 
with a satisfying thump. Looking around quickly he found himself 
facing four more of the straightjacket fiends and some type of 
grinning floating cadaverous man wearing a suit from the turn of the 
century.

*****

Willow was again on the second floor of the clock tower looking at 
the blobby thing that hung near the ceiling where the two lines of 
power seemed to meet. She knew that she should have been feeling 
somewhat frightened or possibly even sick from the sight of hearts 
sitting inside three of the jars on the table with the box. Instead, 
however, she felt calm and determined, almost as if she was looking 
forward to the battle. 'I feel the way I imagine Buffy does when 
she's about to face down a big bad,' she thought to herself. 'I 
wonder if I'm getting affected by Buffy's slayer side.' 

The creature abruptly lashed out with several tendrils at Willow. 
Willow flinched back but did not retreat as she held up a hand and 
the tendrils impacted upon her shield. Relived at the success of her 
shield, Willow slashed back at the tendrils with a sword. The 
tendrils eluded her sword thrust by retracting back towards the 
creature. Willow pursued the tendrils, hacking and slashing with her 
swords. All of a sudden, the creature dropped from the ceiling and 
seemed to spread out to envelop her. Her swords doing no noticeable 
harm, the creature surrounded her like some type of jellyfish. She 
could feel thousands of probing tendrils as the creature tried to get 
through her shields. 

As little as a day ago Willow might have panic and lost control of 
her shields, however today the creature was facing a more resolute 
and determined Willow than she had ever been before. She would not 
give one inch to this monster that had violated her and Buffy. Yes, 
it was disgusting, but so what? It was evil, and it was going to die 
tonight.

If she could just figure out how to harm it.

Four of the ghoulish grinning Gentlemen moved to stand in a circle 
around her and she could hear a faint whispering from them as if they 
were chanting something, but their mouths never moved. 

They were casting a spell. 

Inside the jars, one of the hearts began to glow and slowly 
disappear. The creature surrounding her suddenly seemed to grow 
stronger and pressed harder upon her shields. Constricting upon 
her. Crushing down upon her with an ever-increasing pressure.

Ever so slowly, Willow felt herself beginning to succumb to the 
pressure.

*****

Buffy followed one of the demons as it fled upstairs and got her 
first look at four of the gentlemen just before she was tackled by 
another one of their lackeys. The Gentlemen had been standing in a 
circle staring at nothing when Buffy crashed their party. 

Spinning about Buffy sent one of the footmen crashing into the group 
of Gentlemen.

However, three more were upon her. Clutching at her; restraining her; 
holding her up for the advancing Gentleman with the scalpel.

***** 

Angel charged upstairs to find Buffy being held by three of the 
footmen as one of the Gentlemen moved in with a scalpel. With an 
inaudible growl, Angel leapt onto the Gentleman, in the process 
knocking off balance the group trying to hold Buffy and setting her 
free. Buffy scramble to her feet, leapt to grab an overhead beam and 
kicked out at the charging footmen, sending them crashing back over 
some crates.

She turned to see Angel grappling with another couple of footmen, the 
Gentlemen hovering back away as if afraid. 

Something in her head was screaming for her attention and when she 
looked and saw the table with the jars and the small box she realized 
what it was.

The box on the table was the same as the box from her dream.

She took a step forward only to be grabbed from behind by two more 
footmen. They grappled with her as she struggled to reach the box. 
Pressed against a large wooden cable spool, Buffy extended her hand 
towards the box on the table in a futile attempt to reach it.

Then the amulet on Buffy's chest began to glow.

*****

Outside Jude Law had put up a hard fight. He knew over a dozen 
different forms of martial arts and had done his share of hand to 
hand combat when he had been outnumbered before. However, when your 
opponents could get back up after having a bullet pass through their 
chest or head, and you were out numbered... well, the outcome had 
been simply a matter of time. He was beginning to think it had been 
a mistake to put the silencer on the gun as he could really use some 
help right now from either the girl or the vampire inside. 

Jude was being firmly held down by the four bastards in 
straightjackets as the tall floating ghoul who had stayed out of the 
fight, now approached him with a scalpel in hand.

*****

Willow had been resisting the crushing pressure from creature that 
was surrounding her when Buffy disrupted the Gentlemen's spell 
casting. She had felt the creature lose some of its increased 
strength, but it was not enough for her to free herself. As she had 
begun to feel her strength ebb, Willow attempted to get Buffy to 
notice the box on the table and was relieved when she finally did. 
However, that relief was short lived as Buffy was again set upon by 
several of the Gentlemen's henchmen. However, as they grappled with 
Buffy they moved her into the light/power stream that flowed up from 
in front of the clock tower, and suddenly the light began to flow 
into the amulet around Buffy's neck. 

Willow could feel her strength increasing and she gathered herself 
together to free herself, when suddenly she found herself sliding 
back through the link that connected her with Buffy. Abruptly, 
Willow was inside Buffy's body. Willow could feel power flowing 
though her, the likes of which she had never before experienced. 
Power being fed into her from the amulet. Power that needed a 
release. Willow extended her hand alongside Buffy's and urged her to 
release the power.

Buffy had no idea what was going on. She just suddenly felt as if 
her skin was three times too small, and she was a balloon about to 
burst. A tingling suddenly filled her whole body and moved down her 
arms to her finger tips. With an almost orgasmic pleasure of 
release, Buffy found herself amazed as what looked like a massive 
lighting bolt suddenly shot out from her extended hands. The bolt 
not only destroyed the box but also the jars, the table, three 
packing crates and about a two foot section of the wall opposite 
her. The destruction of the box released a brief magical windstorm 
that blew her and the footmen who were holding her backwards towards 
the other wall.

With a sharp intake of breath, Buffy threw her head back and screamed.

*****

Willow flinched as the heads of the 'Gentlemen' exploded. The 
creature convulsed and thrashed in agony as each of its servants 
died. 

Several black tendrils shot out toward Buffy only to recoil as they 
impacted upon her shield.

'Kill it now!' screamed a voice in her mind and Willow lunged forward 
and pierced the monster with two lances that suddenly shot forth from 
her palms. The lances sliced through the creature's defenses as if 
they were tissue paper. Waves of hatred poured into her from the 
creature along her arms and she realized that the monster was 
attempting to invade her through her own contact with the beast. 

Images began to flood her mind. He had once been a sorcerer. 
Templar knights had come to kill him and he had known. But instead 
of running, he had allowed them to kill him, because he had cast a 
spell transforming his conscience into this monstrosity by which he 
had seized control of the knights and their squires. He had 
proceeded to direct the knights to their homes where they had 
slaughter their families, their friends and their villages. All the 
while, the evil sorcerer had feasted upon the misery and suffering of 
the knights' souls still trapped within their bodies. Willow 
received a flood of information about the many dark magics and spells 
that the demon knew, and she was sickened by it.

Willow didn't hesitate as she transformed her lances into a thousand 
barbed hooks that she suddenly yanked out of the beast. The monster 
screamed and wailed as each hook ripped a piece from it. The 
creature backed away but Willow was all over it, hacking and 
slashing, first with an axe then with a machete. As it tried to flee 
out of the clock tower, she transformed her fingers into steel claws 
that she used to dig into the beast and rip out chucks from it. With 
a grim determination, Willow savagely ripped piece after piece off of 
the wailing monster until it suddenly collapsed in upon itself and 
faded from existence.

Panting in exhaustion, Willow failed to notice the figure of Jude Law 
scrambling to hide in the nearby bushes. 

His relief at being saved was tempered by his bafflement over how it 
had happened. One moment, the scalpel-wielding ghoul had been about 
to cut into him, the next there was an explosion in the clock tower. 
The ghoul had suddenly looked up as if in fear and then he had heard 
a girl's scream. The demonic henchmen released him as they had begun 
to writhe on the ground in agony, and, as Jude had scrambled to his 
feet, the surgeon ghoul's head had suddenly exploded. 

As he recovered his breath while hiding in the bushes, he watched as 
Buffy Summers and her vampire companion emerged from the clock tower.

"Well that was possibly one of the most disgusting demon deaths I 
think I have ever seen," grumbled Buffy as she stepped out of the 
tower. She was wiping her clothes with her hands, trying to make 
certain that she had gotten all of the bits of brain matter off of 
her.

"I don't know, at least it didn't smell," said Angel. "I had a 
Zichae demon a few weeks ago that exploded on me. Cordelia 
practically had me bathing in Lysol to get the smell out." 

"Ok part of me is thinking I should maybe be jealous, whereas another 
part is saying 'blech'," Buffy said lightly. 

"Yeah well..." the rest of whatever the man said was lost to Jude as 
he lay in the bushes and thought about what he had just seen.

The 'Girl' who just happened to be the roommate and best friend to 
Willow Rosenberg, had just taken out a group of demons with the help 
of a vampire. The question of 'Why had Hostile 17 gone to their 
room?' was suddenly prominent in his mind. Buffy Summers was not a 
vampire, but she was friends with them apparently, and her strength 
marked her as definitely inhuman. The little voice inside his head 
that usually warned him about trouble was now wide-awake and shouting 
for his attention.

When he stood up he lit a cigar and smoked for a few minutes as he 
continued to think. Slowly at first, but with an increasing stride, 
he began to walk back towards the Initiative. He had a number of 
questions that needed answering yesterday.

*****

It was in a much happier mood than she had been in for weeks that 
Buffy met Tara for breakfast before heading over to Giles the next 
morning. 

"Y-You think that the amulet was the reason for w-what happened to 
you last night?" Tara asked.

"Well, I've never been able to do it before," Buffy briefly looked at 
her fingers before lowering her voice to a more conspiratorial 
tone. "I tried to test it out a few more times last night but 
nothing happen. I don't know, maybe it was a one-time thing. It 
doesn't matter anyway; you should take it back. Your Grandmother 
gave it to you to protect you," Buffy said as she handed the amulet 
over to Tara. "It's way too valuable for you to just hand over to 
someone you hardly know."

Tara shook her head and pushed it back. "I've never been able to do 
anything with it. Y-You should keep it. Besides, I can't think of a 
better way for it to protect me than by giving it to the Slayer. And 
I think Gran would have liked you," she added with a smile.

"Alright," Buffy said, only slightly reluctantly, "but if you ever 
want it back..."

"I know who to come to."

"Right. Now let's get over the Giles' and you can work your mojo."

"Mojo?"

*****

The last of the Havalich, along with the other spell components were 
assembled and ready as Tara prepared to begin the casting. 'Third 
times the charm right?' she thought to herself as she began to mix in 
the first of the components.

Spike was over in Xander's basement, while Angel had opted to stay 
the day at the mansion as the CDC's travel restrictions would not be 
lifted until they had given the 'All Clear'.

Olivia sat next to Giles on the sofa. It had not been much of a 
relaxing stopover for her, but she had hopes that things would 
improve. Her eyes had been opened to a number of things over the 
last 48 hours and she needed some time alone with Rupert to talk 
about things. 

Anya sat on a stool by the kitchen waiting for Xander to return from 
his donut run and thinking about last night. He had been so 
passionate with her last night after beating up Spike when he thought 
that Spike had killed her. It must have been some sort of male macho 
thing. Maybe she should get Xander to beat up on Spike more often 
before they had sex.

Willow sat next to Buffy as she watched Tara begin. She was trouble 
by what had happened last night. It had been totally unlike her. 
However, it was very Slayerish in a cold ruthless and determined 
fashion. She wondered if maybe her connection to Buffy was impacting 
upon the way that she thought. Certainly that voice in her head 
telling her to 'Kill it Now!' couldn't have been hers. Could it? And 
what had gone on when she had seemed to merge with Buffy's body? Had 
Buffy somehow unconsciously tapped into her magic abilities? The 
lighting bolt blast had her totally stumped as to how they had 
managed it. The only sure thing that she knew was that the amulet 
had somehow directed power from that magical-light line into Buffy, 
who had stored it like a capacitor until she had finally discharged 
it.

Tara began her incantation. "Diana, Goddess of the hunt. To you we-"

Suddenly Xander burst into the apartment. "TV...Now!" He gasped out 
of breath as he snapped his fingers and pointed at the TV in the 
corner.

Giles turned on the TV.

"Repeating this breaking new story," said the announcer. "Willow 
Rosenberg, missing since November 16th, was found this morning by 
police. She was taken to Sunnydale General where doctors are 
checking out her condition. We have this statement from Chief of 
Police Dale Huber."

The screen switched to show the bald Police Captain standing in front 
of a podium. "Miss. Rosenberg was found at approximately 6:30AM this 
morning in fair condition although she appeared to have sustained 
some recent head trauma. She was discovered wandering in a dazed 
state along Key Creek Road by Deputy Terry Farley."

Buffy was out the door and sprinting for the hospital. Xander was 
close behind her dragging Anya behind him. "Hey! Ouch. Xander! 
Where's my donut?"

Giles stood up eager to see Willow as well but tempered by the desire 
not to appear to be running out on guests at his home.

Olivia looked at him and waved her hand, "Go. I'll be here when you 
get back."

With an almost gleeful delight on his face Rupert dashed out of the 
apartment. Ten seconds later he dashed back into the apartment to 
grab his car keys and wallet before running back out.


Tara thumped her head against the table. "I'm cursed. That's the 
only explanation." She was definitely feeling some uncast spell 
tension. She made a note that she might have to do something special 
for Diana after disturbing her 3 times with the incomplete spell.

She looked up at Olivia. "I can do magic. Honest."

Olivia just smiled and moved to get out Giles Scotch. "After what 
I've seen the last 48 hours, I believe you." She held out a glass 
towards the girl. "Join me?"

Tara just shook her head and began to clean up the magic components, 
carefully placing the still usable ingredients back into jars or 
plastic baggies.

"It's OK. R-Really. I'm glad she's been found and is alive and 
all. I just think that maybe I should go."

*****

When Buffy arrived at the hospital she was surprised to find a mob of 
reporters crowding in the front entryway. "Where the hell did they 
come from?" she wondered.

By the time Xander, Anya & Giles got to the hospital, Buffy had been 
told that only Willow's parents could give permission for her to see 
Willow and they were at that moment in the doctor's office just being 
appraised regarding Willow's condition. However, they did allow her 
to wait in another room away from the TV reporters who had tried to 
latch onto her for a sound bite.

When Sheila and Ira finally appeared, Sheila hugged Buffy and Xander 
while Ira shook hands with Giles. 

"She's OK. We just saw her. She's alive!" Sheila said haltingly. 
She was so happy about Willow's return that she couldn't stop 
crying. "Th-This is Dr. Ackerman. He-he says Willow has some sort 
of amnesia."

Buffy looked at the doctor, but Giles was the one who got in the 
question first. "What do you mean some sort of amnesia."

Dr. Ackerman looked a little nervous as the group stared at 
him. "Well Miss Rosenberg has apparently no memory of what has 
happened to her for the past few weeks. She also appears to have 
sustained some sort of head trauma recently. We are not certain, 
therefor, whether the amnesia is from physical or psychological 
trauma. She is, right now, under going an MRI and we hope to know 
more in a few hours."

"Can we see her?" Buffy asked with a pleading tone.

"With the Rosenberg's permission, I will authorize short visits for 
one person at a time..." 

****

It was over an hour later when an agitated Buffy was finally allowed 
to see Willow. Something was wrong, her spider-sense was working 
overtime and she didn't know why. When Buffy got to Willow's room, 
she paused at the door for just a moment to look at her friend. She 
was laying in the bed with a forlorn expression on her face as she 
looked out the window. A gauze bandage was fixed to her left temple.

"Will?" Buffy asked hesitantly

"Buffy?" Willow held up her arms and Buffy immediately moved forward 
to climb on the side of the bed and hug her.

"Oh God, Will," Buffy sobbed as she buried her face into her 
hair. "I'm so glad you're safe. I-I've been so afraid that you 
were... you know. But you're not so we won't talk about that because 
you're here and you're OK." Tears were streaming down Buffy's face 
as she held onto Willow as tightly as she dared to without hurting 
her.

"Buffy," sobbed the red headed girl as she clutched the Slayer 
tightly to her. She moved her mouth close to whisper into Buffy's 
ear. "They...they did...s-s-s-s-some t-t-t-thing t-t-to me."

Buffy pulled back to look with concern into the sad green eyes before 
her. She reached up to touch Willow's face and wipe away some of the 
tears. "What is it? What did they do?" 

Leaning forward to move her lips right next to the Slayer's ear, she 
whispered something that sent an icy chill through Buffy's spine in a 
way that nothing had ever before.

"They cut into my brain and took away my magic."

******

Unseen as usual, the spirit of Willow Rosenberg stood in shock as she 
stared at the imposter in her body hugging her best friend. 'Buffy,' 
she whimpered. 'That's not me. I'm here. They killed me. 
That's...I... oh please Buffy you have to hear me!' 

But Buffy did not hear her, anymore than she had over the past 
month. 

Horrible realizations began to sink in. She could not communicate 
with Buffy, and now they wouldn't even be looking for her because 
this...thing was walking around in her body. Her body which had been 
taken from her. Because she'd been murdered. By whoever had sent 
this thing in her place. Probably to hurt Buffy!

'Get a way from her, you bitch!' she screamed at her body as it 
continued to hold onto Buffy. Angrily, Willow lashed out at it with 
a hand that transformed into steel tipped claws; but her claws 
encountered nothing and past right through the body. Again and 
again, she slashed at her body in a futile effort to destroy it, 
until finally she staggered away, shaking with rage and frustration.

Buffy continued to hold Willow's body, stroking her hair and 
whispering into her ear that she would do whatever she could to 'make 
it better'. Within her mind, however, she was in turmoil. Seething 
with anger and fury at whoever had done this to her Willow. Someone 
was going to pay.

Raging inside, she failed to hear the wail of pain and anguish as 
Willow slumped to the floor and began to cry.

~~~~~~~

End Chapter 4

To Be Continued...

Next up... 'Doomed'

Well this should probably take away some of the heat from Cilia. I 
should run away and hid now....